All posts tagged mwc

Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was part of a keynote panel at Mobile World Congress that covered the challenges of expanding Internet access around the globe.

We live-blogged the session here. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

11:17 am (EST)

Brian Fitzgerald

Hi everyone. Thanks for stopping by the live blog. The Journal is at Mobile World Congress, and one session we're watching closely is this one with Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook has made a big push through several initiatives, including Internet.org, to expand Internet access around the world. (More access equals more potential Facebook customers, after all.)

But as Sam Schechner and Ryan Knutson wrote in a story today, telecom operators aren't necessarily happy with Facebook. In particular, some think companies like Facebook and Google profit at their expense -- offering little in terms of building expensive infrastructure, and then offering tools that bypass some of the carrier's moneymaking services.

With that in mind, Sam, Ryan and another Journal colleague, Lisa Fleisher, will be watching the session to see if any of these tensions come to a head.

Israel-based eyeSight Technology let Digits test drive its software-based, gesture-recognition eyewear at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress, which wrapped up this week. The technology, in theory, allow any camera-equipped device–a laptop, smartphone or tablet–to be controlled by the wave of a hand.Read More »

What? No eye-popping Ultra HD display? No retina scanner? But the rumors suggested the Galaxy S5 was going to be a life-changing phone!

No, the Galaxy S5 isn’t chock full of radical new hardware components or fancy-sounding software features, which require you to hold one arm over your head and tilt the phone towards the equator to work properly.

Samsung Electronics finally showed off its latest flagship Galaxy smartphone at Mobile World Congress on Monday.

The launch comes as the South Korean company faces stiff competition from rival smartphone makers that are also launching similar products at the show and comes at a critical time for the South Korean company as it tries to boost slowing sales.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest smartphone maker, faces competition from all sides these days. At the highest end of the market, of course, sits Apple and its iPhone, while at the lower end of the market, a horde of Chinese smartphone makers are quickly catching up to Samsung, at a time when smartphones increasingly resemble one another.

Those are the challenges Samsung faces as it is unveils the latest iteration of its best-selling smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S5. The company also released its latest smartwatch, the Gear 2, and a fitness-tracking device called the Gear Fit.

Read on for highlights at Samsung’s Unpacked Event, which took place at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, an annual confab that serves as the biggest stage for the world’s smartphone makers.

1:55 pm (EST)

Jonathan Cheng

Hello everyone -- thousands are streaming here into the International Convention Center here on the coast in Barcelona.

To set the scene, today is day one of MWC, the big annual tech and telco confab here.

In the past two days we've already seen new devices from Sony, Huawei, HTC and Nokia, among others,

But none is as hotly anticipated as Samsung, the world's No 1 maker of smart phones.

LG Electronics has big plans for this year: releasing its first smartwatch hand-in-hand with Google, outpacing global smartphone growth and focusing on selling higher-margin, premium phones in China.

Park Jong-seok, the chief of LG’s mobile unit, said the new smartwatch would have features that would be compatible with not only LG’s phones, but also those of other companies.

He didn’t elaborate on the specifications of the smartwatch or the operating system that would power the device, while speaking to a group of reporters in Seoul ahead of the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain. But a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the watch would be powered by Google’s Android operating system. Read More »

While Samsung Electronics unveiled its new Gear 2 smartwatch to much fanfare, China’s Huawei Technologies also made its own foray into the wearable device market this weekend.

Huawei’s TalkBand B1, just unveiled at a mobile trade show in Spain, is similar to most other smart bands worn around the wrist, keeping time and offering health-tracking features. But Huawei adds a little twist by making the device act as a Bluetooth headset for wireless phone calls.

Part of the wristband-like device comes off and turns into a earpiece, allowing users to make calls without taking their phones out of their pockets or bags. Huawei says the new device is compatible with both Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems. Read More »

LG Electronics Co., at a media briefing here on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress, formally introduced its newest smartphone to the public, a device dubbed the “LG G2 mini.” But you’d be forgiven for raising an eyebrow: The so-called mini device comes in at 4.7 inches, measured diagonally, making it a fair bit larger than Apple Inc.’s largest smartphone, the iPhone 5. (Apple, it should be noted, is reportedly working on a bigger devices of its own.)

Cradling the LG G2 mini at the Sunday afternoon event brings the size issue home. One needs both hands to handle the device horizontally for taking photos, and one wonders whether it might fit into certain jean pockets. Read More »

With the release earlier Sunday of Samsung Electronics Co.’s latest smart watch, the company didn’t make much noise about its decision to power the device with Tizen, an operating system it’s developing with Intel Corp. and a handful of telecommunications companies, including Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc. and France’s Orange SA.

But the move could presage a broader shift away from Google Inc.’s Android OS, which powers the vast majority of Samsung’s mobile devices, including its best-selling series of Galaxy smartphones. But Tizen’s development has so far has struggled amid a series of setbacks, including several delays of product launches and the exit of some of its carrier partners. Read More »

It may not have the cachet of the Consumer Electronics Show, held each January in Las Vegas. But Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress has over the years transformed itself–from largely a trade show for European telecom executives and telco suppliers, into a global showcase in its own right for gadgets and tech companies.

Much of the show’s new swagger comes thanks to the explosive intersection of computing and mobile devices in recent years. Underscoring its new position in the tech world, Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is giving one of the show’s keynotes.